Dick Blume / The Post-StandardKathy Sherlock's parents created a fund to give organizations automated external defibrillators. The fund honors her brother, Jim Dwyer Jr., who died in 1998.

Kathy Sherlock has seen firsthand how one small machine can make the difference between life and death.

Her 31-year-old brother died in 1998 after his heart stopped while waiting for a table at a restaurant in Memphis, Tenn. She and her family believe his life could have been saved if the restaurant had an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

So they have made it their mission to purchase automated external defibrillators for Central New York organizations.

On a Labrador Mountain Ski Area slope recently, she and others helped save a man’s life using the device.

Sherlock, of Tully, was skiing with friends Feb. 6 when they decided to ski down the southern peak. As they headed down, they spotted a little girl standing next to a man lying in the snow.

“She told us the man wasn’t talking,” Sherlock recalled. “He didn’t have a helmet on, and we started trying to wake him up, but he was out cold.”

She called her friend’s husband, Steve Rake, who is in the ski patrol and was at the top of the mountain. Then an emergency medical technician came through the woods and started giving the man CPR. Within a few minutes, the portable defibrillator arrived by snowmobile.

“They had to shock the man three times before it worked and his heart started going again,” Sherlock said. “I was cheering the guy on as they worked on him, and it was just a pretty incredible thing to see it working.”

She had never seen one used in real life.

“It really made all we’ve been doing seem really worth it, because it made all the difference,” she said.

How to help

To donate to the Jim Dwyer Jr. Memorial Fund, send checks care of the fund to Syracuse Glass, 1 General Motors Drive, Syracuse, NY 13206 This is the first time Labrador has used its automated external defibrillator in the eight years it’s had one, said Rick Bunnell, marketing and snowsports director at Labrador. Bunnell was on the scene during the resuscitation.

“The ski patrol and everyone on the scene did a fabulous job of saving this man who was most likely legally dead,” he said.

Sherlock said she’s learned the 53-year-old man was in full cardiac arrest. “He was a pretty lucky guy. We’ve been told he’s recovering nicely.”

It also was bittersweet for Sherlock, who wished an AED had been available to use on her brother.

“The man at Labrador had everybody working as a team together, and my brother had nobody,” she said.

Sherlock said her experience of seeing firsthand the device at work has strengthened her resolve to get more of the devices in the hands of people who can use them to save lives. Next on her list is getting a second AED for Labrador Mountain to keep in their ski patrol office on the southern peak.

Sherlock’s parents, Jim and Kathleen Dwyer of Syracuse, started the fund to buy and supply the devices in 1998 with money donated in lieu of flowers in memory of their son, Jim Jr. It is administered by the Central New York Community Foundation.

The family has secured AEDs for the Fabius Fire Department, Song Mountain, Syracuse University, LeMoyne College, Bellevue Country Club, the New York State Fair, Onondaga County 911 Center, Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and DeRuyter Lake Association, among others.

AEDs cost about $2,500, but used to run $5,000, Sherlock said.

The experience is one Sherlock isn’t likely to forget.

“It was really amazing,” she said. “It was incredible how well everyone worked together and how that AED made such a difference.”